Khonsu
ek mod 2}}|0=Khonsu as a falcon bearing the moon disk.|1=Khonsu depicted as the child of Amun and Mut.}} |titlewidth=200px |1a=Country |1=Egypt |2t=General information |2a=Gender |2=Male |3a=Symbol |3=The moon disk, the sidelock |4a=Cult center |4=Thebes |5a=Appearance |5=Child with headdress of crescent and full moon, falcon with the moon disk on its head, mummified person with crook and flail with the lunar headdress, baboon |6a=Associations and roles |6=Moon |7t=Family |7a=Parents |7=Amun and Mut; Sobek and Hathor |8t=Name |8a=Name in hieroglyphs |8=Aa1:N35:O34-M23-G45-G7 |9a=Also known as |9=Khons, Chensu, Khensu, Chons, Chonsu |10a=Connections with other gods of mythology |10=Ekwensu (Igbo mythology, Chandra and Soma (Hindu mythology), Tsukuyomi (Japanese mythology), Meness (Latvian mythology), Mani (Norse mythology), Kaskuh (Hittite mythology), Kusuh (Hurrian mythology), Sin (Mesopotamian mythology) }} In Ancient Egyptian religion, Khonsu (alternatively known as Khons, Khensu, Khonshu, Chons, Chonsu and Chensu) was a lunar deity who controlled the passing of the moon across the sky. In the New Kingdom, Khonsu also evolved to become an important deity associated with healing. His chief cult center was at Thebes. Khonsu was the offspring of the gods Amun and Mut. He was one of the companions of Thoth (who was also associated with the moon and the measurement of time). It was thought that he could influence the fertility of both the people and their livestock and one myth (recorded on the walls of the Ptolemaic temple of Khonsu at Karnak) gives him a prominent role in the creation of the universe. It was said that he personally healed the pharaoh Ptolemy IV (who took the epithet "beloved of Khonsu who protects the king and drives away evil spirits" in thanks for the gods help) and he was also thought to extend his protection to the common people. As a result, many Egyptians were named after him. Name There has been some dispute regarding the meaning of his name. Some scholars have suggested that it represented the royal placenta (transliterated as h-nisw), but it is now generally held that it was derived from the word "khenes" (hns) meaning "to cross" or "to travel" (referring to his journey across the sky). However, he was also known by the more specific names; "Khonsu nefer hotep" (in Thebes) was described as the "lord of Ma´at", an epithet he shared with Ptah. When there was a new moon he was known as the "mighty bull" and during the full moon he was associated with a neutered bull. This god not only ruled the month, but he also supposed to possess absolute power over the evil sprits which infested earth, air, sea, and sky, and which made themselves hostile to man and attacked his body under the forms of pains, sickness, and diseases, and produced decay, and madness, and death. Roles in myth The god Khonsu was a moon god whose earliest attested character is considerably different from his later manifestation in New Kingdom Thebes where he appears as the benign son of Amun and Mut. In the Pyramid Texts he appears in the famous 'Cannibal Hymn' as a bloodthirsty deity who assists the deceased king in catching and slaying those Egyptian gods that the king 'feeds upon' in order to absorb their strength. Later the god appears to have been associated with childbirth, but it is in his role as an integral member of the all-powerful Theban triad (Amun, Mut, Khonsu) that Khonsu is best known. There Khonsu was primarily viewed as a lunar god, but he exhibited several different aspects, appearing among other forms as Khonsu pa-khered (Khonsu the Child); Khonsu pa-ir-sekher (Khonsu the provider; the Chespisichis of the Greeks); Khonsu heseb-ahau (Khons, decider of the life span); and Khonsu em-waset nefer-hetep (Khonsu in Thebes) - apparently the most important Theban manifestation of the god. The various forms of the god interacted with one another as can be seen from the inscription known as the Bentresh Stela - inscribed in Thebes in the 4th century BC but purporting to record a pronouncement of Ramesses II some 800 years earlier. The stela tells how the Egyptian king loaned a statue of Khonsu pa-ir-sekher to the king of Bakhtan to aid in the healing of his daughter, Bentresh, and includes discourse between this form of Khonsu and the more senior Khonsu in Thebes. Although firmly associated with Amun and Mut at Thebes, at Kom Ombo Khonsu was regarded as the son of Sobek and Hathor, and at the Edfu Temple Khonsu was linked to Osiris as 'the son of the leg', referring to the relic of the netherworld god said to be preserved at that site. As a moon god Khonsu was also sometimes associated with Shu, god of the air, and with Horus. Like Thoth, he participated in the reckoning of time and was believed to influence the gestation of both humans and animals. In the past the name of Khonsu was thought to be derived from the elements kh placenta and senu king as a personification of the royal placenta, but it is now generally believed to be based on the verb 'khenes' (to cross over) or (to traverse), meaning (he who traverses the sky). Iconography Khonsu was usually depicted as a young mummiform man in the posture of a mummy. In his role as the young son of Amun he generally wore a sidelock and the curved beard of the gods. He often wore a full lunar disc resting in a crescent moon as a headdress and carried a crook and flail in his hands (linking him with the pharaoh and Osiris). Occasionally he bore a staff topped by the Was (representing power) or the Djed (representing stability). He generally wore a loose necklace with a crescent-shaped pectoral and a counterpoise in the shape of an inverted key-hole. In his mummiform aspect he looks so similar to Ptah that the only way to tell them apart is to check the necklace as the counterpoise worn by Ptah is a different shape. Khonsu could also be depicted as a falcon-headed man, but unlike Horus or Ra his headdress is sometimes topped by a lunar, not solar symbol. Like Thoth he was associated with the baboon, but was only rarely depicted in this form. During the later period he may be depicted on plaques as fully human or in his falcon-headed form, together with his parents Amun and Mut. He may also be depicted standing on the back of a crocodile, like Horus. As "Khensu, the chronographer" he wears the solar disk on his head and holds a stylus in his right hand. Khonsu was also a great lover of games, especially senet. He was also frequently recorded playing a game of Senet against Thoth. Category:Males Category:Egyptian deities Category:Lunar deities